last week

Last week the two younger boys (and myself) attended a creative writing and Lego making summer camp. It was held in our local library each morning. We learnt how to plan and write a story and then, using Lego figures and an amazing app (Lego Story Visualizer), transform them into a comic strip with proper backgrounds and speech bubbles and all the wham! whizz! bam! and sock! you can handle.

Mide did some quite detailed drawings of his character - Spaceman Skiff who fights with aliens and space pirates. And then ideas were transformed into comics...

William wrote about a gang of baddies, led by the aptly named 'Slasher', who were determined to envelop the city in a toxic gas cloud... It makes me so happy to see them engaged in such a creative way and also work alongside one another which doesn't always happen. Mide overcame his massive anxiety at experiencing new things and decided it was worth giving it a go and William had two of his favourite things right there - Lego and writing - so he was delighted. Thank goodness for the library!

pieces of eight

 

The long days of summer means there's plenty of time for imaginative play undisturbed by adults and pesky early bedtimes. William dug out The Dangerous Book for Boys and the page on pirate flags caught his fancy and before you could say 'land ahoy' or 'shiver me timbers' he and Mide were off in their own pirate world. Wooden swords and maps were dug out and flags and ships' plans were drawn up and there followed hours of piratical play both in the house and out on the seven seas (that would be in wheelbarrows in the garden, for the uninitiated) with plenty of walking the plank and raiding passing boats and enough noise to wake auld Blackbeard himself...

stone age

Yesterday it started with them building a stone age camp fire... 

 Then making 'soup' for the cavemen...

Followed by map drawing, complete with neanderthal village and treacherous mountains and raptor ridge...

Then a stone cave...

 And eventually refreshment in the form of tea and cake in the front garden...how civilised!

Until this morning when we woke up to snow... No problem to our intrepid cavemen, they re-drew their map to include 'snowy moor' and 'woolly mammoth hunting'...

my way

I know. Don't laugh. It's killing my teenager that his mother is doing embroidery... but honestly it's very relaxing and as it's totally new to me I'm merrily getting it all wrong. My French knots won't knot and that Buttonhole thingie ain't happening. I'm just doing it my way. I'm slowly learning that sometimes in life my way, wrong or not, is good enough.

weekending

While Hugo downloads an app to help tune the guitar William, Mide and I do some advanced robotics at the table...

...and that cold, foggy weather means that some almond scones by the fire are just what's needed.

this week let's...

Last week the boys and I really enjoyed making and doing and baking, so this week I put another list on the fridge for us to try. I finally bought some Paperwhite bulbs so they'll be planted today and yesterday we made flapjacks and chocolate spread (I know gratuitous sugar use). Other things we're trying this week:

* drawing together

* leaf painting (see Artemis' gorgeous sparkling leaves here)

* trip to the library

* portrait painting 

Happy autumn!

golden clouds

falling leaves

autumn light

confetti leaves

Oh no! A new thing to fall in love with! These gorgeous beaten brass hanging mobiles are the work of Japanese metalsmith Kanehen, and were commissioned by the ever fabulous The Shop Floor Project. The names of the pieces are so evocative ~ summer clouds, falling leaves, confetti leaves, cloud pruning, autumn light, stones, water....I can just imagine them twisting and catching the sunlight...so lovely!

'From her studio in rural Japan, Kanehen hand-beats brass, nickel and copper into functional and beautiful everyday utensils, sculptural button and stunning mobiles - the latter inspired by cloud formations and falling leaves. This is the first time the artist’s work has been shown outside of Japan.' 

The Shop Floor Project

stones

water II

And after all that ethereal beauty there's also practical, household pieces ~ copper spoons, salt dishes, scoops, buttons, cake slices. View the collection here. What a wonderful gift they would make!

buzzy

Oh it's a miserable day- cool, wet and windy. A little linocutting is in order-a bumblebee and a favourite plant of theirs-the spiky eryngium. It starts off greyish green and gradually turns a very striking blue. It's also a proficient self seeder and keeps the bees happy!

gentle gentleness

It is the weekend. Lots of people seem to fill weekends doing so much-rushing to do jobs when they should be slowing down. You need to rest as much as you need to be busy. Fill your days by all means, but fill them with making nice things to eat, spending your time with friends and family, pottering in the garden, taking a walk, investing a little time in things that are good for the soul.



I love the work of Elaine Pamphilon. Gentle gentleness captured in paint and good for the soul.

what no tv looks like

If I had to choose what 'no tv' looked like it would be this rather Heath Robinson-esque contraption of Hugo and William's. Built from wheelbarrows, rope, skateboards and old bikes, rope ladders, the swing and tennis racquets it is, in fact, a spaceship. It represents all that is good about free time - the freedom to build from the imagination, the time to do it and  just enough boredom to make it worthwhile.

what are you afraid of?

William asked to paint this morning. He got out his watercolours, filled a cup with water, found his sketch book and painted. He painted with no thoughts of 'what if this goes wrong'. He painted with no thoughts of 'what if no-one likes this'. He put the brush on the page and made his mark, no hesitating, no doubting. As he mixed colours trying to find the best one for a volcano he talked about why Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear. He wondered if it was because Vincent thought he wasn't very good at painting. I watched him silently hoping that he would never lose his ability to create without fear of judgement, fear of being wrong, fear of self doubt.

Autumn Bliss

Autumnal walks up dusty end-of-summer tracks and past hedgerows bursting with colour. 

September is often a time for new beginnings and now all the boys are wrapped up in school life I have a little more time to do some things I like. Last week I went to the Highlanes gallery in Drogheda to see Abigail O'Brien's With Bread exhibition of wonderfully up close and intimate photographs taken in some of Ireland's bakeries. There are also the most beautiful silver plated bread sculptures laid out on tables with some under glass domes like so many treats waiting to be slipped into shopping baskets and taken home for breakfast...

These fantastic paintings and drawings are from the Texaco children's art competition which is also being exhibited in the Highlanes. I love children's art and not in some soppy or worse, patronising way. That wobbly lighthouse is by a six year old and the exquisite drawing of a girl is by a 16 year old boy. Just love!